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Prevent typeahead queries from generating response signals

Updated

Issue

Why are response signals showing 0 hits for queries that should consistently return results?

Clients may observe an unusually high number of "no results" signals, even when the same query manually entered into the search box yields expected results. This discrepancy can distort downstream analytics and business intelligence that rely on response signal accuracy.

 

Diagnosis

To determine whether your response signals are being affected by typeahead queries:

  • Review the request logs or signal payloads associated with the zero-result queries.

  • Check for the presence of typeahead-related request patterns, such as:

    • Short or incomplete query strings

    • Query profile or pipeline references tied to autocomplete or typeahead

    • Increased frequency of queries with minimal user input (e.g., single letters)

  • Use Fusion’s Logs UI or Fluent Bit output to trace which query pipelines are associated with signal generation.

 

Environment

Fusion 5.9.3
Deployment: Self-hosted Fusion on GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine)

 

Cause

By default, signals may be generated for all query pipelines, including those configured for typeahead/autocomplete. Because typeahead queries typically execute before users submit full queries, they can frequently result in zero hits. These intermediary results are not meaningful from a relevance or analytics perspective but may still be logged as response signals if not explicitly excluded.

 

Resolution

To prevent typeahead pipelines from generating response signals:

 

Exclude signal generation for the typeahead pipeline

Update the typeahead query pipeline to prevent signal generation by setting the skipSignals flag to true.

  1. Navigate to Query Pipelines in the Fusion UI.

  2. Open the pipeline used for typeahead or autocomplete.

  3. Add or modify the skipSignals property in the pipeline configuration to include:

"skipSignals": true

Alternatively, in the pipeline JSON editor:

{
  "id": "typeahead-pipeline",
  "stages": [
    // pipeline stages
  ],
  "properties": {
    "skipSignals": true
  }
}

  1. Save and redeploy the pipeline.

This setting ensures that executions of the typeahead pipeline do not emit response signals, preserving the integrity of your analytics for meaningful search queries only.

If the typeahead pipeline is shared across different use cases, consider duplicating it and assigning skipSignals: true only to the version used for non-terminal input (e.g., autocomplete behavior).

 

Optional: Filter signals downstream

If modifying the pipeline is not feasible, implement a downstream filter in your signal aggregation or processing logic to exclude response signals generated by typeahead pipelines. Use fields like pipelineId or queryLength to define exclusion rules.

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